Deloitte, Price, and Bitcoin

In case you missed it this week, bribery scandals come to light in the world of college basketball, cybersecurity attacks hit Deloitte, and Florida players may or may not be charged after stealing thousands of dollars.

Leaving on a jet plane | This week it came out that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took a poorly written page out of Mnuchin’s book and used a government-funded jet to take trips to see his son—all to the tune of about $400k. While technically Price chartered the flights in combo with some actual government business, it pushes some serious ethical boundaries. It also pushed the President to the edge, who, according to a GOP senator, is, “mad as hell.” You and the American People, both.

Illegal use of hands | Nine Florida football players are facing felony charges after they moved money from a stolen credit card onto their personal debit account and spent thousands of dollars on electronics. The State’s Attorney is “unsure” if they’re going to be formally pressing charges against them, though. "Well, obviously, know this: I really care about those guys... Obviously, we sit down as a staff. We sit down as an administration. Obviously, the university first and what that is. Yet, at the end of the day I'll do everything I can to help these guys,” said their coach. Obviously.

Fouled out | College basketball isn’t having a great week. On Tuesday, the FBI announced that 10 people were arrested following a two-year investigation around fraud, corruption, and bribery. It involved a con man accused of stealing $2.35 million from pro athletes, who then agreed to wear a wire and get buddy-buddy with coaches, financial advisers, agents, and apparel company employees. The whole thing revolved around two schemes: coaches taking cash to guide athletes to the bribers; and managers, advisers, and apparel company employees funnelling money to the athletes and their families. Those players would get anywhere up to $100k to go to a school sponsored by (you guessed it) the apparel company.

Breach of the week | Equifax is kicking back as Deloitte takes center stage this week. The auditing and consulting giant revealed that hackers successfully broke into their systems. While, “very few” clients were affected, it still has many raising their eyebrows and calling for a greater cyber protection—and for more transparency. This month alone everyone’s favorite credit agency, Equifax, and our federal regulatory watchdog, the SEC, announced they were also victems of cyberattacks. Starting in 2018, the EU is changing the game with a little something called GDPR, which will affect how companies with clients in Europe will have to handle these kind of attacks. (Psst: want to make sure you’re ready? Compliance Week has you covered.)

Ending on a high note | Bitcoin traders are sleeping easy tonight—for the last few weeks there was some speculation about how the cryptocurrency would fare now that China put the kibosh on it. Breakups are rough, but it looks like they’ll be just fine without them. This week prices held above the $4,000-mark. There RE still hurdles to jump (the SEC and Japan are looking at rolling out regulations), but for now it’s going strong.

Thanks for reading! Keep your eyes glued to this column for another roundup of the latest news from the wider world of compliance. And as always, please send any questions, comments, or leads to katherine.ohara@complianceweek.com.